hearthwitch, a friend and neighbour dropped by and we all went around the block for Mexican dinner. The food was simple but good, cheap as chips (almost literally, my spinach burrito was under $7) . We also ran into two more of martinhesselius' friends (which isn't really a surprise as he has so many) there. We dropped off hearthwitch and then set out on a little tour of Birmingham while Glas told me a little about it's history. We visited Vulcan (a huge statue) who overlooks the city. Sadly, the weather was still miserable or we might have had a good view (not sure how long it's open, though).

The next stop was a pagan cafe, one of Glas' hangouts where we met more of his friends and after talking about Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman decided to go to the cinema and watch Stardust.We got there and it was only ONE DOLLAR! For a film in a reasonable cinema. That's about 50p currently. *cries* Still, the film is so good that I'll go and see it in Cambridge again, anyway.

After the cinema we met up with aeromancer13 who also crashed at Glas' as he was in town for urgent family matters. We chatted quite a while about this and that while checking emails/processing photos. I think I got the earliest night during my whole holiday as Glas would leave at 7.30 in the morning. I had a good night's sleep and all was good.

and it's an hour later again. Where does the time change?If I had known beforehand that this motel is exactly underneath the flightpath of starting planes, I would have chosen a different one. So I'm stuck here again. Might go out and find some earplugs later when I try to find some dinner. Still, it was a good decision for the first night as I hadn't wanted to drive far but today I could have stayed somewhere further out as I don't have to return the car before 3. Bah, should have thought of that but I thought I'd have a nice long night without driving afterwards. Oh well, should be fine.Am going to watch Planet Terror later which I bought on DVD.

This morning, after saying goodbye to martinhesselius and aeromancer13, I had breakfast at Bogue's Restaurant: Biscuits in white pepper gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage patties, greasy spoon-tastic for a fiver (incl. coffe and OJ).After some cruising around, I stopped over at Sloss Furnaces, which is now a historic landmark. A wonderful classic industrial site, blast furnaces and all the paraphernalia. It would make a fantastic setting for a photo shoot...Afterwards, I drove eastwards, mostly on Highway 78 and avoiding the I-20, taking it nice and slowly until I arrived at Atlanta, just gone 4 (or rather, 5).While it was still grey and miserable in Birmingham, the weather picked up around lunchtime and I had sunshine for most of the second half of the journey. Much more pleasant!